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12 Months of Mandarin

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Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#21

Post by jimmywetnips »

cyberlimerence wrote: post #13

I don't know Mandarin, but I found this browser extension [1] very useful for quickly translating some words. It doesn't translate sentences unfortunately, but I guess you can use machine translation for that. I'm curious if/how anyone here has integrated LLMs for their language learning process. Also after you learn a certain amount of basic words in any language, I recommend trying to learn that language from insid…

GPT has been a godsend. For basically being a very competent super knowledgeable tutor of every single language.

So if I have some weird question about some language mechanism I can ask it in the domain that I know which is English or a romance language and it will do some compare and contrast. I can ask it about the etymology of the word and the development of certain verbs which helps me to really remember things.

The way that it knows what you mean because it has such a vast knowledge base but also the fact that it is an expert in both source and target languages, and how nowadays with voice chat it speaks it with a correct accent means there's really nothing else like it to be honest

Like, is there potentially a human being who can surpass the abilities of GPT in this domain? Absolutely but that particular professor or tutor needs to not only be native proficient in both languages, speak both without accidents, but also be patient and understand what you're trying to ask without any judgment. And now try to do that for one to N language pairs and basically the talent pool shrinks to zero. Oh and you want it on demand to scratch a curious itch while driving down the road. No human can offer this service.

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#22

Post by alanwreath »

Trufa wrote: post #17
kentosi-dw wrote: post #12

The importance of an SRS system like Anki cannot be overstated. However I can see how this might be a burden to some when it comes to entering in your own sentences. For this, I highly recommend making use of your OS's dictation (speech to text) feature. You get to practice speaking _and_ enter sentences much quicker.

I'm learning Indonesian the right way after having learned German in the wrongest possible way and ANKI is just amazing for language learning, 4 months in and I'm having basic conversations.

Sorry maybe this is the wrong question. But with regard to ANKI (all caps) are referring to some app?

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#23

Post by keiferski »

alanwreath wrote: post #22
Trufa wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm learning Indonesian the right way after having learned German in the wrongest possible way and ANKI is just amazing for language learning, 4 months in and I'm having basic conversations.

Sorry maybe this is the wrong question. But with regard to ANKI (all caps) are referring to some app?

https://apps.ankiweb.net

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#24

Post by alexawarrior4 »

vunderba wrote: post #3

I commend the author's discipline - this is a pretty standard approach. TLDR - Move as many things as possible in regular life to the target language (software, tv shows, reading, etc) to maintain the language - There is no substitute for full immersion if you have the opportunity. I learned traditional Chinese in Taiwan while I was an ESL teacher. - The power of SRS (spaced repetition system) cannot be overstated I…

"The power of SRS (spaced repetition system) cannot be overstated"

For an alternative take, there is at least some evidence that SRS is entirely unnecessary and can even hinder language learning. I know it at least is not required by first language speakers, and have also seen many examples of fluent second and third language speakers who never use SRS, or any other kind of "practiced" language acquisition such as learning vocabulary, grammar, etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Input_hypothesis

For instance here's a PhD thesis of someone who learned French to fluency with only watching TV and (later) reading books:

https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:9b49365

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#25

Post by joshdavham »

alberth wrote: post #18

Different language, but I’d highly recommend Tokyo Vice as a tv show. The main actor, Ansel Elgort, learned Japanese in 1-month time. https://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/ansel-elgort-learned-japanes... Granted he probably was learning more pronunciation to say his lines. But Japanese actors on set have commented at how surprised they were in his mastery of the language off camera in such a short amount of time.

I'm not familiar with the show, but, you can't learn any language in one month. That is a myth. The reason for this is actually mathematical. To understand a language you need to know at least a couple thousand words and you can't realistically learn thousands of words in a month. That takes time.

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#26

Post by iforgotpassword »

hangonhn wrote: post #19
iforgotpassword wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you not white or otherwise have unusual features? I'm a random white dude and I've been to Beijing and Shanghai many times over the past 15 years, and while I was asked for a photo a few times at parks or touristy places, it was far from feeling like a celeb or anything. And it has gotten less and less over the past years, but maybe that's because I'm getting older and more boring. :)

You need to leave Beijing and especially Shanghai and head farther inland to regain your celebrity status! I (ethnic Chinese) went to China with two friends from Texas in the early 2010s. One of them has long blonde hair. She was never stopped in Shanghai, a couple of times in Beijing, but in Chengdu, they were just so amazed by her and her husband (but mostly her and her long blonde hair). People wanted to take pict…

Yes, going to smaller cities has always been on my list but never worked out. I did Tianjin and Qingdao last and this year, but they are still too big it seems. Stayed three days both times and there was nothing more than a few stares.

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#28

Post by [deleted] »

alanwreath wrote: post #22
Trufa wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm learning Indonesian the right way after having learned German in the wrongest possible way and ANKI is just amazing for language learning, 4 months in and I'm having basic conversations.

Sorry maybe this is the wrong question. But with regard to ANKI (all caps) are referring to some app?

[deleted]

Re: 12 Months of Mandarin

#30

Post by senkora »

vunderba wrote: post #3

I commend the author's discipline - this is a pretty standard approach. TLDR - Move as many things as possible in regular life to the target language (software, tv shows, reading, etc) to maintain the language - There is no substitute for full immersion if you have the opportunity. I learned traditional Chinese in Taiwan while I was an ESL teacher. - The power of SRS (spaced repetition system) cannot be overstated I…

I worked through “Remembering Simplified Hanzi” and my one complaint is that I wish that it were “grouped by frequency” a bit more.

The way that these books work is that the first one is the most common ~1500 characters grouped by radical / component, and then the second one is the next most common ~1500 characters grouped the same way.

The problem is that this means that you have to learn 1500 characters before you know all of the most common 1500. I stopped after 1000 characters and was left not knowing many extremely common characters that hadn’t been introduced yet.

I think that a better organization would have been 500, 1000, 1500 instead of 1500, 1500.

Other than that, great books that I also recommend.

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